Cheat Sheets

Expertise means knowing and understanding everything possible about a particular subject area. Expertise is also a source of power and influence, and in order to ‘get on’ you need to exert yours. Here[more…]

The quality and value of the services that you provide are important considerations. To acquire – and retain – customers and clients, you need to provide exceptional service to them. Here is a selection[more…]

For many business leaders, going global is both a driving ambition and a recognition of their excellence at what they do – and the rewards of successfully doing so can be enormous. However, you must be[more…]

Assessing the competitive environment, establishing a competitive position and developing a strategy are key to being able to identify and take advantage of business opportunities that arise. Having a[more…]

Your micro-entrepreneurial business is a product, and it can be sold like anything else. If you’ve developed a large customer base for your micro-entrepreneurial business, you can get a lot of money for[more…]

If your micro-entrepreneurial business is a business model that can be copied and sold, consider franchising or creating dealerships. You can grow your micro-entrepreneurial business and make more money[more…]

Why is such a powerful question that it’s the basis for a root cause analysis technique called the5whys. The thought is that by the time you ask a stakeholder Why? 5 times, you generally have arrived[more…]

When you’re involved in process improvement projects as a business analyst, a key task is to take time to define the metrics you’ll use to measure success. The measures differ, depending on the industry[more…]

On new development or mission-critical projects, several people may perform business analysis work. If so, business analysis planning may be divided among different business analysts. In these cases, the[more…]

In business analysis projects, plans become outdated as soon as you start executing. As you discover new information about the people, project characteristics, and process, those changes impact your plan[more…]

Although many teams nowadays have one person function as both the project manager (PM) and business analyst (BA), a lot of teams still have different people performing those roles. One of the challenges[more…]

When verifying and validating solutions, you perform a requirements review, a structured audit in which you give participants the opportunity to ask questions and make suggestions in order to improve the[more…]

Aside from fulfilling a business analyst (BA) role at a company, you may have the opportunity apply your various business analysis skills to other roles. You can parse out individual business analysis[more…]

In the world of competitive intelligence, analysis transforms raw information into knowledge and insight, shedding light on future action your organization must take in order to capitalize on opportunities[more…]

Even when an organization’s leadership has all the information and research it needs to execute a positive change, it may fail to take action. In fact, about 80 percent of all change initiatives fail,[more…]

Competitive intelligence (CI) enables an organization to continually evolve in response to ever-changing conditions. These conditions, or forces, can be classified into ten distinct categories. The first[more…]

A business impact analysis (BIA) is a business analysis tool that helps you predict how significantly your project will impact the business. You use it to gather information about the project's various[more…]

Business analysis projects all follow the same basic life cycle. A project is a set of steps that accomplish something, so describing business analysis activities as part of a project life cycle makes[more…]

A major business analysis task is overseeing process improvement — identifying, analyzing, and improving an existing business process so the company can integrate processes from mergers and acquisitions[more…]

Becoming a master in business analysis is a goal many business analysts (BAs) have, but it can be a difficult one to achieve because this field is constantly changing and evolving. The business analysis[more…]

When gathering competitive information, you may begin with some general data-mining on a topic and discover that what you're researching is far from a new idea. The information isn't especially helpful[more…]

To perform competitive intelligence (CI) effectively, you need to have a solid understanding of what CI is and what it's not. By spending a few moments reviewing the following list of key concepts and[more…]

Decision makers in your organization may need to be convinced that CI is indeed valuable. You can't simply stick a dollar figure on CI, but a list of benefits that highlight exactly how CI functions as[more…]